“There was a woman and a little girl on the tram coming out from Dublin. You wouldn’t give the woman a second glance, but I’ve never seen such a beautiful child.” The girl’s name is Angel and by the time she is fourteen – a woman with a child’s face, long golden hair and sleepy violet-blue eyes – Danny has fallen in love with her and dreams of marrying her.

Growing up in a village outside Dublin, Angel is aware of the way men look at her. But she’s not interested in Danny with his lame leg, nor good-looking Tommy Maguire in his soldier’s uniform. She loves Johnny Quinn, who doesn’t even seem to have noticed her. When Angel’s pursuit of Johnny ends in disgrace, and she goes to Dublin, she thinks life cannot get worse. But she soon finds that she has further to fall before she finds lasting happiness.